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Samuel Goldberg has been a Massachusetts criminal defense attorney for 20 years. Prior to that, he was a New York state prosecutor. He has published various articles regarding the practice of criminal law and frequently provides legal analysis on radio and television, appearing on outlets such as the Fox News Channel, Court TV, MSNBC and The BBC Network. To speak to Sam about a criminal matter call (617) 206-1942.

Articles Posted inFelonies and Violent Crimes

As promised, this blog will discuss how Attorney Sam Goldberg and I successfully used the insanity defense for one of our clients. In order to keep client/attorney confidentiality, I have altered various minor details and will be referring the client as Defendant.

Well, for one thing, I don’t think this is going to help him very much in the lawsuit.

I am referring to 45-year-old Arthur Burnham (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). It would appear that his sense of entertainment is not shared by Southbridge Police Department. Or the law, for that matter.

You see, the Southbridge police say that he was laughing and cheering after he doused a police cruiser with gasoline and set it on fire right outside the police station.

Jurors in Suffolk Superior Court found Edwin Alemany guilty of first-degree murder and 15 other counts, including premeditated murder, for the killing of Amy Lord. Alemany was also found guilty of attacking two other women before and after killing Lord.

In July of 2013, Alemany kidnapped Lord from outside her South Boston apartment and forced her to withdraw money from several ATM machines. Prosecutors said he then raped her and stabbed her more than 75 times. He then dumped her naked body in Hyde Park and set her car on fire.

Ian tells me that he was listening to NPR this morning during his travels when an interesting point was made regarding the ongoing investigation into the recent shooting of a 7-year-old Brockton boy in Dorchester. You can also read about it in the Boston Globe.

Although the young boy has been identified in the media, we will simply refer to him as the “Victim”… a word I seldom use, but I imagine there is no doubt of it in this case.

The Victim is still alive and is in the hospital. He is described as being in good condition.

Police Superintendent in Chief William G. Gross said witnesses described the shooter as a light-skinned man between the ages of approximately 17 and 20 who wore a red hoodie and tan pants, and who fled on foot.Continue reading

Let’s turn to the end of December and look south for example. This time in Decatur, Georgia. The dead man is 44-year-old Kevin Davis.

His involvement with law enforcement occurred when…he called them seeking their protection.

Folks remember Davis as a kind and loving man. air kindness included inviting coworker Terrance Hilyard, who was going through a rough time, to stay with him and his girlfriend, April Edwards, in their small apartment.. She took him up on the offer. Things did not end well.

On December 29, 2014, there was an argument between Edwards and Hilyard. Apparently, the argument escalated to the point where Hilyard stabbed Edwards with a kitchen knife. When Hilyard then fled the home, Davis called 911. He and his wounded girlfriend retreated to the bedroom to await the police in safety.

There they waited.

Until Davis heard gunfire from the home’s front room.

Fearing that Hilyard had returned with a gun to finish what she had started, Davis grabbed his own gun and went to the front room.

The shots fired were not from Hilyard. Nor had she returned. The shots were fired from the protectors whom Davis was desperately awaiting.

Police Officer Joseph Pitts, the first officer to arrive on the scene had fired those shots…into Davis’threelegged dog, Tooter.

And Davis was next.

As he entered the room, Davis was gunned down by Officer Pitts. Two shots. Officer Pitts claims that Davis was ordered to drop his weapon but did not comply soon enough.

On the streets, if not in the law, this can be a capital offense.

Interestingly, witnesses say that they never heard Officer Pitts announce himself. They also claim that there was no command for Davis to drop the gun until after the shots we fired.

Also unknown is what Tooter the crippled dog had to to earn his shooting.

Davis was then arrested, charged with aggravated assault of a police officer, and transferred to a hospital in police custody, where he would die two days later.

The family is reporting that they were not allowed to visit him as he languished and died, in custody,

Davis’ protection of Edwards ended more successfully than the police department’s protection of him. She was transported to emergency care, her wounds punctured an artery in her right arm, but she has since recovered
…But that’s in Georgia. How are the streets treating law enforcement here in the Commonwealth?

Well, on Thursday morning in Bourne, it looks like a member of the United States Coast Guard actually set a deadly trap for police officers.

You see, police received a number of calls describing a car fire and explosions on Roundhouse Road at about 2:15 a.m. When officers arrived, they found a car engulfed in flames blocking the road, police said. At the same time, police got a 911 call from a woman saying she and another woman, both members of the coast guard, had been shot and that the male assailiant had fled the scene.

Apparently, he hadn’t gone far though.

When the police arrived, 31-year-old United States Coast guardsman Adrian Loya, of Chesapeake, Virginia, is said to have shot atthe officers, hitting one of them in the back, below his bullrt proof vest.

Loya was subdued, alive, and charged a number of criminal charges including the ambush of the officers and the shooting of the women. The police say that the shooting was the result of a home invasion gone deadly. In fact, one of the two women died at the scene.

the wounded officer and surviving shooting victim were rushed to a Rhode Island hospital and treated.

Attorney Sam’s Take On The Sad Reality Of Police Shootings (Both Ways)

My experience with police shootings began when I was an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York. Clearly, the problem has not gone away and is not limited to any one state.

“But, Sam, these are two stories and only one has to do with a police officer shooting someone.”

True. But in order to understand and protect your self from the reality of police shootings, it is important to understand stories like the one on Cape Cod.

The tragedy we remember today was as horrible and ugly as they come. And come they have. Repeatedly.

Too often, the tragedy results in the death or serious injury of our children. Often, it is our children who perpetrate the deed.

It happened again just last week. This time it was in Murraysville, Pennsylvania. This time it was at the Franklin Regional High School. This time it was knives.

Just as school was about to start, a student armed with two knives walked through the building and began stabbing people. By the time it was over, two students were in critical condition at a nearby hospital and the third was on life-support.

School violence seems to have become an almost expected reality. In days gone by, there was always some such violence. However, school-related stabbings, shootings and killings frequentLy found in the news.

We try to fight the trend via the usual approach, namely, jacking up criminal penalties and enacting do-nothing-but-feel-good such as semi-recent anti-bullying law. The result? The citizenry feels good for a little while and the problem continues.

Some approaches, however, show some promise.

The seriousness with which instances of school violence are treated changed after the Columbine massacre. Then, a couple of years ago, a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults at the Sandyhook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Now, there is even more scrutiny of security procedures in schools.

For better…and for worse.

“I don’t think anybody walks around saying it’s not going to happen here,” said John Panica, who works as a school resource officer at Massachusetts’ Newton North High School. “I think people say it could, and as long as you’re prepared you’re able to deal with those things.”

“It was a wake-up call that it can happen in any town and in any place in America,” said Canton Detective Chip Yeaton, who works as a school resource officer at Canton High School. Yeaton, who also serves as the president of the Massachusetts Juvenile Police Officer’s Association – an organization that represents school resource officers – estimated that about 70 percent of school districts in the state have at least one police officer working in a school.

Immediately after Sandy Hook, Reading police Officer Corey Santasky worked with the school district to review its building security, and spent time at schools to reassure children and parents that students were protected.

“After Sandy Hook, I went to all of the elementary schools every day and greeted the kids every morning to show them we’re there to help them and keep them safe,” he said.

Police presence is seen as serving two functions. First of all, and perhaps most important to many, it offers a feeling, if not reality, of security. Second, police point to the relationships they’ve built with students and teachers as proactive measures that have helped prevent possible mass shootings. In Marshfield, for example, police got word of an attack planned for 2005 to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the April 20, 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 15 people dead. Three students who plotted a similar attack in 2001 were thwarted in New Bedford.

But more often than not, school cops can be found in the halls chatting and listening to students. Some are plainclothes, and some, like Santasky, wear a uniform. Walking the halls of Reading High School, Santasky said he believes listening to kids can prevent major problems.

“My goal is to make sure they can trust me, that I’m a resource for them,” Santasky said.

More and more police officers are being stationed in Massachusetts schools – serving as role models and lecturing to classes on drugs and alcohol, bullying and, more recently, cyber activity such as sexting. Most appear to be masters of small talk: They schmooze with students to gain trust, pull lunch monitor duty like teachers, and walk a beat through the halls in between classes, trying to learn as many names of students as possible. Many even spend some of their weekends at schools, attending games, dances, and plays.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Law Enforcement, Schools And Your Children (Part One)

Nobody can disagree that having a police presence at a school means extra security. It might even help in easing kids’ views about the police.

This blog generally focuses on warning the reader about dangers the Massachusetts crimnal justice system (and the nightmare called DCF) presents to the unwary.

Most people, particularly the innocent, are indeed unwary.

You will notice that I mentioned above that this extra attention to school violence has both positive and negative effects. The positive ones are pretty obvious. Take the police presence for example. More police presence provides extra security should a problem arise. Further, if handled correctly, the police may even strike up relationships with kids which serve as a more positive foundation to those kids’ reaction to law enforcement.

Everyone is happy with the positives…but few truly understand the negatives.

At least 75 people were arrested yesterday by the Boston Police Department during a targeted raid in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury.

The raid, called “Operation H,” took place around 6 a.m. Tuesday morning in an effort to crack down on drug deals and gang-related violence in the neighborhood before the beginning of summer. As of mid-afternoon yesterday, 75 individuals had been arrested for violent and drug-related crimes including cocaine and heroin dealing. At least 14 individuals were indicted by a special grand jury and arraigned Tuesday morning in Suffolk Superior Court. All of the individuals arrested, according to police, were considered dangerous and had been involved in gun violence.

Most of the charges against the gang members were brought on by a targeted narcotics investigation. According to Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis investigators had been building their case against gang members for several months.

“Detectives videotaped the suspects selling illegal drugs to undercover officers from various locations. The suspects were openly plying their drug trade, victimizing the community and creating an atmosphere of fear — today’s arrests will give residents back their neighborhoods,” Davis said.

Investigators will be now be seeking search warrants for several residences to gather more evidence for the case, as well as pressuring individual group members to provide additional information about several unsolved violent crimes around the city, including the January shooting of a 13-year old boy. The boy, Gabriel Clarke, was shot while walking to choir practice on Humboldt Avenue. Clarke fortunately survived the ordeal, and police believe that he was an innocent victim who was caught in the middle of a violent gang rivalry.Continue reading

The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has discussed the suggested procedure when law enforcement is upon you and investigating you for a possible crime. I have maintained that the safest practice is to not try to out-run, out-talk or out-fight the investigators. I suggest you invoke your right to an attorney and comply politely with what you are required to do.

The case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) and the issue of his timely receiving Miranda Rights goes to the very heart of this. Think twice before you wish to make exceptions to his Constitutional Rights because he is the villain of the day.

Tomorrow, you may be a suspected villain.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Miranda Rights, Statements And You

When it comes to answering questions of investigating officers, most folks do not understand the ground rules. The investigators do, of course. They utilize them every day for a living. The Miranda Rights do not fully advise the target of those rules either, by the way. It only advises that the rules exist to some extent.

Miranda Rights are necessary in only certain circumstances. They fit here. The Defendant has to be in custody and in that custody because he is the suspect of the crime about which he is being questioned. Both are undeniable here. It cannot, then, fit under any of the exceptions which would otherwise allow law enforcement to delay reading the Rights. The only one here is the public safety exception.Continue reading

An investigation that recently led to the closure of a Massachusetts crime lab could have some defendants who were convicted of drug crimes filing their appeals. The lab, which is located in Jamaica Plain, was shut down after state police discovered that chemist Annie Dookhan did not follow testing protocols and may have improperly handled drug samples. At this time, state authorities are not sure how many of these samples were tainted. However, in the wake of these recent revelations, Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach, has announced his resignation.

The Boston Globe reports that Dookhan was involved in the testing of over 50,000 drug samples related to about 34,000 defendants from 2003 to 2012. One of the cases linked to Dookhan is the 2010 Suffolk County drug investigation that led to the conviction of Larry Blue for weapons and cocaine traffic offenses involving 14 to 28 grams and the sale of narcotics within 1,000 feet of a school.

During Blue’s trial, Dookhan testified that she was in charge of “quality control/quality assurance” at the drug lab, which included ensuring that balances were in proper effect, policies and procedures were being abided by, and all machines were working correctly. Looking back at this testimony, some Massachusetts criminal defense lawyers are now asking whether even the samples that other chemists at the lab handled may have also been contaminated. (Dookhan also mentioned that she conducted 30 to 50 preliminary tests a day, and, along with three other chemists, performed confirmatory tests on drug samples that had already gone through initial testing.)

Such speculation is raising concerns that there might have been other problems with the way the crime lab was run. (The Massachusetts Department of Public Health was in charge of the lab until police took over in July.) For example, WCVB.com reports that a backlog in work may have hurt testing quality and delayed some criminal cases. In 2007, overtime was reduced by 50% even though there was a backlog of 8,000 samples. By 2011, turnaround time was taking about 140 days/sample. Compare that to in 2004 when the turnaround time per sample was approximately 30 days.

By publishing this information on this Web site, the Boston, Massachusetts law firm of Altman & Altman LLP is not claiming to represent any clients or cases mentioned here. The content provided is designed to inform readers and is not intended as legal advice.